The Mettle of a Woman and a Man
by Beledi1113
Summary: Okay, I had to fix a couple of words because I write too fast and who knew that you can't use an ellipsis in the title, so I've fixed the name and reposted. This is my idea of how Castle season 6 will go because I'm tired of a mopey Beckett and mopey Castle (although he's kinda cute when he mopes) and no offense to any mopey fan fic out there.


Summary – Okay, I had to fix a couple of words and who knew that you couldn't use an ellipsis in the title, so I've fixed the name and reposted. This is my idea of how Castle season 6 will go because I'm tired of a mopey Beckett and mopey Castle (although he's kinda cute when he mopes) and no offense to any mopey fan fic out there. I think eventually Beckett has to go back to New York for the show to be cohesive, rather than "Castle – NYC" and "Beckett – DC." This is just a one chapter story and assumes that Beckett accepted Castle's proposal and also moved to DC for the job.

Disclaimer – Don't own Castle: Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do. Just writing for fun.

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**The Mettle of a Woman…and a Man**

Beckett stared out of the plane window as the sun rose over New York, bringing her closer to her city. This sight had always made her heart beat faster for a different reason than when her heart beat faster at the sight of DC from a plane window – her love of a certain writer in New York vs her love of her job at the AU office and the ideals it carried.

As Agent Stack and Captain Gates knew she would, Beckett had thrived in her new job with the Attorney General's office, quickly picking up the skills needed to perform the tasks at hand with exceptional results. She had made the top marks in her training classes, her assignments had gone well, her reviews were always glowing, and higher ups were starting to take notice of her. Six months on the job and she was definitely on the fast track to greater things – hell-bent on getting justice on a grander scale.

Beckett worried her bottom lip. The "but" in this was that all of this had come with a price in her and Castle's relationship. She had put so much time and effort into the job that their form of communication now was mainly short texting of things like "Hi, miss you." "The 12th says 'hi' and don't be a stranger."

There was little time for talking on the phone or Skyping with the long hours she put in. The few times she had made plans to go to New York, she'd have to cancel at the last minute because of work. The onus for visiting and communicating was now all on Castle, and when he came for a visit, more likely than not, she'd be called out on a last-minute assignment, so they spent very little time together.

When he was there, Castle still peppered her apartment with sticky notes, professing his undying love for her and that he'd wait forever for her, and would put on his fake smile with the situation. She would catch his wistful looks out of the corner of her eye on occasion and then walk over to him and take his hands in hers. She reassured him that this phase wouldn't last forever – she was the new kid on the block proving her mettle to the agency and after she did that, things would quiet down – and lead him to the bedroom.

But it had been six months now and there were no signs of that happening – of things slowing down. In fact, in the last two weeks, things had started moving faster and she had had no time at all for anything else. Texts went unanswered, emails unread. She was being assigned to special cases that needed discreet handling and they wanted to make sure she was ready for this.

Yes, she thought with a slight hitch in her heart about the cost, this job was what she wanted – that is, until she walked into her boss's office yesterday morning.

Agent Stack and the man were reviewing a file when she walked in.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?" she asked.

"Yes, Agent Beckett, and close the door." He waited until she shut the door. "We have case we're assigning to you. It needs the utmost discretion and Agent Stack assures me that you're the agent for this."

The two men went over the plan with her in detail and then waited for her response.

"Ah, sir," Beckett asked questioningly. "Isn't that illegal – unconstitutional?"

Since she started at the AU office, Castle had joked that her light reading material had been constitutional law when he picked up the hefty book on her nightstand.

Both men looked at her and frowned. "Agent Stack said this wouldn't be a problem for you," said her boss. "That you thought out of the box."

"I thought we were here to uphold the law, not break it," said Beckett.

"Yes, we are – on the record," said Stack. "Off the record, we do what it takes to get this job done."

"Are you on board with that, Agent?" asked her boss.

Beckett looked at both men for a minute and knew immediately what her answer was. No long speech about how she had become a cop to catch the man who had killed her mother because he thought he was above the law. No long speech about the crooked cops who had started everything because they thought they were above the law. No, that wasn't who she was – the law was the law.

"Respectfully, sir, I decline." She took her badge and gun out of her belt. "And I quit also. I find this job is no longer a good fit for me."

She walked out of his office, cleaned out her desk, made arrangements to be debriefed, broke the lease on her apartment, and booked a ticket on the first plane to NYC the next morning with hopes of picking up her life there.

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Having written through the night, Castle put the finishing touches on his last Nikki Heat book and saved the file. He sat back in the chair, watching the glowing screen of the laptop. It wasn't that he wanted to end the series, but the character reminded him too much of Kate and what he was missing, and that made his heart ache.

He said he'd wait for her for as long as it took, but now even the continuation of their relationship seemed impossible. But the heart wants what heart wants and he knew he would stay forever.

His phone beeped at him indicating he had a text, but it was listed as caller unknown. He quickly read it, frowned, and then jumped off the couch and made some quick phone calls.

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Pulling her carryon behind her, Kate walked slowly down the walkway at the airport. Her first call would be to Lanie for a place to stay until she could get her own place. While she was mostly sure that Castle would welcome her back with open arms, their relationship had been strained severely over the last several weeks and she wanted to have a backup plan in place in case he didn't.

Then she would go to the loft and tell him that she was back and find out where they were heading.

And then she'd visit Gates to see if there was an opening in the 12th. She didn't expect to get her old job back, but she wanted to be with her team in whatever capacity they could use her.

Beckett was pulling out her phone to speed dial Lanie when the sound of clapping reached her ears. She looked up to see what the commotion was and then stopped short.

Her team stood at the end of the walkway – Espo, Ryan, and Lanie had a huge "Welcome Home, Detective Beckett!" sign in their hands and Castle stood there with a bouquet of red roses, a huge smile on his face.

Kate smiled back and quickly walked to them to rejoin her team.

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The End


End file.
